The flight of the eagle: considerations on method, interdisciplinary knowledge and the environment

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationships between method, interdisciplinary knowledge and the environment using arguments of authors from different fields of knowledge and focusing on different premises regarding the possibilities and limitations of interdisciplinary constructions. The inextricable interconnections between the scientific method, objectivity and the fragmentation of knowledge in the Western philosophical tradition show that monodisciplinary constructions have been not only a means, but the actual foundation of Western knowledge. The paper also discusses the need to find alternative reasons and paradigms that make possible interdisciplinary thinking, and the need to conjugate the philosophical assumptions of different systems theories with epistemology. In addition, the paper stresses the importance of considering the political, ethical and esthetic dimensions of reality which have been neglected by the hegemonic Sciences. In conclusion it argues that to establish interdisciplinary constructions, it is necessary to review our language because our current forms of communication - our linguistic forms - are a reflection of a world view and a mental structure that have privileged the opposite way: the dichotomies. This has predetermined a certain relationship with the environment and with knowledge itself.